GENERAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE AGENDA, 3/11/15
4:10PM, GBB 225
CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL
Members present: S. Bradford, L. Calderon, S. Caro, R. Fanning, T. Squires, K. Reiser, T.
Shearer
Ex-officio Members present: B. Howard, N. Lindsay
Members Absent/ Excused: M Cracolice, G. Weix
Guests: M. Patterson, L. Yung
The minutes from 2/25/15 were approved.
COMMUNICATION

Professor Laurie Yung from Resource Conservation will be joining the Committee at
4:30 p.m. to discuss their proposal to comply with the criteria for the language
exemption.
BUSINESS ITEMS

Workgroups reported on the continued review of language forms. Japanese, Latin
and Russian were approved from Group 3. Irish and Spanish were approved by
Group 2 after receiving follow-up information. Several members from Group 1 were
not in attendance, so its consent agenda was postponed until the next meeting.
Rolling Review of Group III: Language.

The new general education website maintained by the Office of Student Success has
received positive feedback. It is well organized, so students can easily find
information. The graduation template and the narrative of why students are
required to take general education courses are helpful. The downside is that the site
is not linked to the catalog, so will need to be updated each year with changes to
general education courses. However, the archival information from the site will be
useful for students as well.
In terms of the pending revision to the catalog general education section, it was
suggested that in contain anchors to minimize the scrolling. Chair Caro sent some
samples of other institutions to the Registrar’s Office.

Associate Provost Lindsay provided a brief update on the assessment pilot. He
traveled to Seattle to meet with the other schools (University of Oregon, Columbian
Basin College and College of Puget Sound) participating in the Northwest
Commission of Colleges and Universities Accreditation Assessment test case. All are
working on various ways to assess general education and academic programs to
meet the new accreditation standards. Their results will be used to provide
guidance to other Universities.
Professor Calderon’s Use and Abuse of Drugs Course is involved in the Natural
Science Assessment Pilot. She has been working with the Writing Center to help
students with their writing. She is pleased with the increased engagement of the
students. They recently wrote about how information in current medical journals
impact their daily lives. Each Natural Science instructor will create their own
approach to assessment. The Committee will collect the data and provide a sample
of options.

Professor Yung from Resource Conservation and Associate Dean Patterson joined
the meeting to clarify the requested language exemption. A handout was
distributed to members. They reviewed the transcripts of 48 students that
graduated last year to understand the courses taken by their students. The data was
shown in a PowerPoint presentation. Due to this analysis they reconfigured the
exemption request. They don’t prescribe the requirements in the tacks. Students
will be advised to the right option depending on their chosen specialty.
The following language will be reflected in the program to describe the general
education Language expectation.
Students must complete at least 49 total credits in the major. Courses that students
use for general education requirements do not count toward the 49 required
credits. Students who do not complete 49 or more credits in the major, must take
10 credits of foreign language (unless they test out of one or more semesters). This
requirement does not apply to students who have completed an associate’s degree.
The request was approved by the Committee.